How to Create or Modify Equivalent Objects in the VMM Library
Updated: May 13, 2016
Applies To: System Center 2012 SP1 - Virtual Machine Manager, System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager, System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager
You can use the following procedures to mark file-based library resources (also known as physical resources) as equivalent objects in Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), and to modify equivalent objects. For example, if you have a Windows Server 2012-based virtual hard disk (.vhd) file that is stored in library shares that are located in two sites, such as Seattle and New York, you can mark the .vhd files as equivalent objects. Then, when you create a template for a new virtual machine, and you specify a .vhd that has equivalent objects, VMM can use any instance of the equivalent object instead of being site-specific. This enables you to use a single template across multiple sites.
Important
For virtual machine and service deployment, VMM supports only the use of .vhd files, .iso images and custom resources as equivalent objects.
Note
During VMM Setup of a stand-alone VMM management server, Server App-V Framework and Web Deployment Framework custom resources are automatically added to the library as equivalent objects. If you add multiple library shares with the default resources, the framework resources are all automatically marked as equivalent because they share the same family name, release value, and namespace.
Account requirements To mark objects as equivalent, you must be a member of the Administrator, Delegated Administrator or Self-Service user roles. Delegated administrators can only mark objects as equivalent on library shares that are within the scope of their user role. Self-service users can only mark objects as equivalent that are in their user role data path in the Self Service User Content node of the VMM library.
To mark objects as equivalent
Open the Library workspace.
In the Library pane, click Library Servers.
Note
If you are a self-service user, in the Library pane, expand Self Service User Content, and then click the user role data path.
In the Physical Library Objects pane (or the Self Service User Objects pane if you are connected as a self-service user), click the Type column header to sort the library resources by type.
Note
If you are an administrator or a delegated administrator, the Library Server column indicates the location of each resource.
Select the resources that you want to mark as equivalent by using either of the following methods:
Important
The resources that you want to mark as equivalent must be of the same file type. For example, you can mark equivalent .vhd files as equivalent objects, and mark equivalent .iso files as another set of equivalent objects.
Click the first resource, press and hold the CTRL key, and then click the other resources that you want to mark as equivalent.
To select a range, click the first resource in the range, press and hold the SHIFT key, and then click the last resource in the range.
For example, if you stored a Windows Server 2008 R2-based .vhd file on the Seattle library share that is named Win2008R2Ent, and an equivalent .vhd file is located in the New York library share, select both of the .vhd files.
Right-click the selected resources, and then click Mark Equivalent.
In the Equivalent Library Objects dialog box, do either of the following, and then click OK:
If you want to create a new set of equivalent objects, in the Family list, type the family name. In the Release list, type a release value.
For example, enter the family name Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise, and the release value 1.0.
Note
The value in the Release list is a string field. Therefore, you can enter any string value.
If you want to add the resources to an existing set of equivalent objects, in the Family list, click an existing family name. In the Release list, click the release value.
The library objects that are considered equivalent are listed in the lower pane.
To verify that the set of equivalent objects was created, in the Library pane, click Equivalent Objects.
Verify that the objects that you marked as equivalent appear in the Equivalent Objects pane. They are grouped by family name.
To mark objects as equivalent, the objects must have the same family name, release value, and namespace. The namespace is assigned automatically by VMM. Equivalent objects that are created by an administrator or delegated administrator are assigned the Global namespace. If a self-service user creates equivalent objects within the Self Service User Content node of the Library workspace, VMM assigns a namespace value that matches the name of the self-service user role. This means that a self-service user cannot mark an object as being equivalent with another object that the self-service user role does not own.
To modify equivalent objects
Open the Library workspace.
In the Library pane, click Equivalent Objects.
In the Equivalent Objects pane, expand a family name, expand the release value, right-click the object that you want to modify, and then click Properties.
On the General tab, modify any of the values, or enter new ones. To remove an object from a set of equivalent objects, delete the family name and release values.
When you are finished, click OK to confirm the settings and to close the dialog box.
See Also